My Lakeside Packers Experience

- By Jackie Bryan
UFCW Local 832 Youth Committee

For the last two weeks of my youth internship program, I was assigned to assist in the organizing drive, lead by UFCW Canada and Local 401 of Lakeside Packers in Brooks, Alberta. Lakeside Packers is a meat packing plant that is owned by a U.S. company—Tyson Foods, the world's biggest meat merchant.

When I arrived in Brooks I met the head organizers, Mr. Archie Duckworth and Mr. Shane Dawson. Duckworth is an organizer for Local 401 and Dawson is an organizer that works out of the National office. UFCW Canada and Local 401 have been trying to organize Lakeside Packers for a number of years. It is the longest and also fastest organizing drive in the history of UFCW Canada.

Many of the conditions of the plant have been compared to working in the 1930's. In the back of the plant there are yellow construction trailers where some workers live. These trailers do not have heat or washrooms.

When we arrived in Brooks we were told to try not to show any emotion when talking with the workers. This was very hard for me. One worker I talked to hurt her back on the job very badly. She now has to sit in a chair while working. Her manager will force her to sit on the stairs. If they do give her a chair they will either give her a broken one or pull it away when she goes to sit down so she will fall on the fl oor. When she is on the ground her managers will laugh and have also kicked her.

We also had the opportunity to chat with a worker who is forced to wear diapers at work because management has denied him bathroom breaks. He spends all day working in his own urine. He was disciplined for filing a complaint about it.

The workers have also been threatened that they will be fired if they file a workers compensation claim, a health and safety report, or if they are seen talking to a union organizer. Many workers believe the union backed down because of a situation that happened in July.

On July 20 at 5 a.m. Lakeside Packers was supposed to strike. This didn't happen because Ralph Klein, the premier for Alberta, said Lakeside was an essential service and told the workers and the union they couldn't strike because of that. What he failed to tell them was that they weren't an essential service.

I also had the opportunity to participate in an informational picket at the plant. During the informational picket Lakeside management was recording us as well as any workers who had 401 flags flying from their cars.

Andy Krocker, Lakeside's head of security, came and told us to get off the road leading into the plant. Mr. Krocker also called the RCMP on us.

Doug O'Halloran, president of Local 401, told us we could stay there as long as we didn't damage any plant property or injure any workers who were either coming to work or leaving work. One lady who is a CLEFER (Concerned Lakeside Employee for Employee Rights) claimed we threw rocks at her car. CLEFER is anti-union.

In the plant staff room they were paying workers up to $150 to sign a petition to keep the union out. Many of us have referred to the plant as a jail. The plant has a lot of security check points as well as barbwire on top of the chain link fence surrounding the plant, so the workers cannot escape.

We had a barbecue to show support for the Lakeside workers and to show that the union was there to stay. There were over 1,000 people there both past and present Lakeside employees. We had the opportunity to meet and chat with many of the former Lakeside employees and hear their horror stories. We had solidarity from many other Alberta unions, not just UFCW.

On our last day in Brooks, we had the opportunity to sit in on the disputes inquiry board meeting with the union's negotiating team, which is made up of Lakeside employees. Many of us could not believe that Tyson Foods refused the offer that the union proposed.

There are four major issues the workers are fighting for. They are to be treated like humans and not slaves, better treatment from management, higher wages for the jobs they do, and basic human rights.